THE COVEY
HEADQUARTERS
Volume 13
Issue 4
Winter 2014
This newsletter is aimed at cooperators and sports-people in Missouri to provide
information on restoring quail. This is a joint effort of the Missouri Department of
Conservation, USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service, and University of
Missouri Extension. If you would like to be removed from this mailing list or have
suggestions for future articles please contact [email protected] or 816-2326555 x122 or write to the address shown.
Grass
Shrubs
Bare Soil
The name of this newsletter is taken from an old concept.....that a quail covey
operates from a headquarters (shrubby cover). If the rest of the covey’s
habitat needs are nearby, a covey should be present. We are encouraging
landowners to manage their quail habitat according to this concept. Use
shrubs as the cornerstone for your quail management efforts. Manage for a
diverse grass, broadleaf weed and legume mixture and provide bare
ground with row crops, food plots or light disking right next to the shrubby
area.
Tally Ho! Swamp Rabbit Hunting in Southeast Missouri
Tim Kavan, Private Land Conservationist, Mississippi, New Madrid, and Pemiscot Counties
“Tally Ho, ho, ho, ho” was the sound
echoing from the bottomland hardwood
forest that we hunted on a particular
day last December. Those words held
congratulatory significance as Rowdy,
Luna, Dixie, and Jack were all greeted
by Aaron Johnson after our first
successful swamp rabbit harvest for
the 2013 season.
Aaron is the owner of Sandburr
Kennels from Sikeston where he
spends nearly all of his free time
breeding and training beagles. I was
introduced to Aaron by Michael Riley, a
quail hunting friend of mine, at a local
Quail Forever fund raising event.
Aaron would occasionally quail hunt
with Michael and me but he would
always talk about running his beagles
during the quail hunt. One day I asked
him if he could take me on a swamp
rabbit hunt so I could be the judge of
all his stories. So, we picked a day and
headed to the woods.
Swamp rabbit hunting provides a little different environment than hunting cottontail rabbits. Generally
speaking, cottontail rabbits will be found in places that have briars, especially blackberry briars, and
enough foliage to protect them from overhead predators like owls and hawks. They also like fields with
knee-high-or-higher cover, especially if there is a food source found in those places. Swamp rabbits, on
the other hand, live in wet lowlands and in heavily constructed brush piles or in cavities of tree trunks
along the banks of streams and drainage ditches. Both species favor areas where food crops or green
browse (River cane for swamp rabbits) are adjacent to briar or shrub thickets. Food plots engineered for
deer or turkey will also entice them. Rabbits will locate in areas that have had some type of disturbance
(i.e. timber harvest or prescribed fire) and the vegetation is coming back with new growth.
Knowing where to go in the woods will usually increase your odds of putting the dogs on scent or jumping
a rabbit on your own. Initially, I was a little cautious hunting with Aaron. This was my first hunt over
beagles and I didn’t know the “ethics” of hunting with Aaron and all the dogs. The first “code” I was given
was to “let the dogs do the work.” What Aaron meant by that was that these hunts aren’t necessarily
intended only for us. The hunt was also to allow all those hours of hard work and training to pay off and
actually get to appreciate the contest between the intelligence of the beagles versus the elusiveness of
the rabbit. You may have never experienced a rabbit being chased by a group of beagles but it is truly
amusing how the rabbits instinctively attempt to elude the hunting dogs.
Once a rabbit is "jumped" and the dogs are hot on the trail, rabbits will often run in a circular pattern and
eventually cross their original trail to throw the dogs off the scent and put them on a false trail. That
means once the "race" is on, you need to find a good spot up the line from where the rabbit was flushed.
The dogs will do the rest as they work the rabbit back around toward your position. Another trait that
separates cottontails from swamp rabbits is the length of the chase. Swamp rabbit chases typically last 23 times longer than a cottontail chase because they are very elusive. They make bigger circles, cross
ditches, take longer strides, and have been known to swim ditches, climb in dens or in holes in the ground
to escape the dogs.
I’ll never forget the first “chase”. We weren’t out of the truck half an hour when the dogs began their
chase. You’ll immediately know when the chase is on, too. A properly trained beagle won’t bark, whine,
whimper, or make a sound until they are hot on a scent trail. Then the flood gates open up and the woods
fill with howling dogs. Those dogs started on a trail and I kept asking Aaron what to do, what to expect,
and where to go. I’m sure he was thinking “My gosh, what did I get myself into?”
But Aaron was great. He explained everything to me and put me in a location where he thought the dogs
would push the rabbit through. Aaron also had GPS tracking collars on each of his dogs, and I would
continuously ask him how far out the dogs were and so on. At one time the beagles were over 350 yards
away from where they initially picked up the scent of the rabbit.
Patience and good hearing are two helpful skills in swamp rabbit hunting. Patience is critical because of
the reason I provided before; to let the dogs work. Good hearing helps in listening to the different tones of
the barks from the beagles. Each dog has its own “job” or “position” while on the chase. One dog might
be the holder of the scent while the other is the confirmer and so on.
While Aaron was explaining all of this to me during that first chase, I could hear that the dogs had made a
turn back to me and I was quick to assume the circle was about to close and I was going to shoot a
rabbit. Aaron quickly hollered at me and had me reposition about 80 yards to the north.
As I made my move, I began to see the dogs working their noses to the ground and lift their head to howl
and get back on the chase. The dogs came closer to me and I thought, “Where in the world is this
secretive creature?”
About that time, the dogs blew right past me at 15-yards and continued on their pursuit of the rabbit. I
relocated too late. The rabbit had already snuck past me and now the dogs were on their second “circle”
still chasing the rabbit.
About three minutes passed and I heard Aaron holler at me.
“There he is, 20 yards out in front of you!”
I shot and missed and that rabbit took off on a dead sprint right at Aaron. It ran through his legs and back
into an opening where we both had a shot at it. The visual reward to the dogs was enough to
silence them as they began searching for their next hot trail with the cry of “Tally Ho, ho, ho, ho!” echoing
through the woods.
Mark Your Calendar
January 28, 2015 – Prescribed Burn Workshop, Trails Regional Public Library, 432 North Holden
Street, Warrensburg. 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM. Contact Steve Hoel at 660-747-8200 ext 117 to register.
January 31, 2015 – Prescribed Burn Workshop, (location TBD near Chillicothe – inquire when
registering). Starting at 9 AM with a classroom session, then a hands-on demo burn to follow at the
Poosey Conservation area - weather permitting. Landowners should bring leather gloves and leather
boots. Pre-registration is required by Wednesday January 28. Materials, refreshments & lunch will be
provided. Contact: Scott Roy, MDC PLS, 660-359-5685 ext. 114 or Andrew White, QF FBB, 660-6466220 ext. 116.
February 28, 2015 – Regional Landowner Workshop, Southeast Missouri University Campus in
Malden, MO (700 N Douglass St, Malden, MO 63863) from 8am – Noon. Participants at the workshop
will have opportunities to hear presentations on wildlife, forest, and pond management as well as other
topics such as trespassing issues and cost share programs. There will also be a library with conservation
related publications, as well as a Landowner Consultation Room where participants can receive one-onone assistance from biologists to evaluate your farm for wildlife habitat potential. Pre-registration is
required by calling the MDC Southeast Regional Office at 573-290-5730.
Winter Covey Headquarter Calendar
December
Burn native warm-season grass fields to set back the grass and encourage annual weeds.
Disk your CRP acres now to promote ragweed.
Order your covey headquarter shrubs from MDC’s State Nursery - mdc.mo.gov/node/4011
Drop honeylocust and hedge trees in fencelines for quail covey headquarters. Don’t forget to spray the
stumps to prevent re-sprout.
January
Stop wasting money on inputs on low-yield cropfield edges. Visit your local FSA office and enroll these
areas in CRP practice CP33.
Burn your CRP acres to reduce grass competition and increase wildflower abundance.
Plant your wildflower pollinator habitat this month.
February
Interseed wildflowers/legumes in conjunction with your CRP management practices.
Broadcast annual lespedeza over recently burned areas and firelines.
Create covey headquarters by dropping large trees along fencerows and leave them where they fall.
Finish burning your native warm-season grass acres this month. For quail, DO NOT burn rank stands of
native grass after March 15.
Complete edge feathering, downed tree structures, and forest stand improvement projects.
Fire and Grazing for Wildlife Management
Scott Sudkamp, Small Game Coordinator
In October, 2014, I travelled to southeast Oklahoma with two other MDC biologists to attend a field day
showcasing the use of fire and grazing as wildlife management tools. The field day was held at the
Pushmataha Wildlife Management Area (WMA). Terrain on the WMA is rugged, with many rocky hills
and valleys. Soils are well drained, with many large slabs of sandstone at or near the surface. Annual
rainfall averages 52”. Historically, the area was largely oak/pine woodland and savannah, with post oak
and shortleaf pine as the dominant trees, and a ground layer of native grasses and forbs. In short, the
landscape on and around the WMA is very similar to much of the southern Missouri Ozarks.
Soon after European settlement, the area was mostly used as native pasture, but as fire suppression
became common in the early 1900s, woody succession advanced rapidly and began to eliminate the
grass/forb component. Today, the general landscape outside the WMA is mostly closed-canopy timber,
and little grazing still occurs, due to a lack of forage in the heavily shaded woods. But on the WMA itself,
staff have utilized prescribed fire at varying intervals over the past 30 years. This, along with thinning and
commercial tree harvest, has resulted in restoration of the floral community and vegetative structure that
was once present. More recently, patch burn grazing has been introduced as a habitat management tool
to reduce grass dominance and improve structural heterogeneity. Wildlife, including elk, turkey, whitetailed deer, and bobwhites have responded favorably to these habitat enhancements, and populations of
these species on the WMA are considerably higher than populations outside the WMA.
Following are some of my notes from the field day based on the management techniques we observed:
Patch Burn Grazing (PBG) Study Site:
 In 2014, stocker cattle were on PBG pasture from mid-March through mid-September. Stocking
during the growing season provides cattle with highly palatable and nutritious forage, and grazing
at that time keeps vegetation in the grazed patch from becoming rank.
 WMA staff reported 1.15 pounds average daily gain for stocker cattle in 2014
 Due to loss of a forage base due to forest succession, little private land near the WMA is still
grazed. Some grazing does occur on more fertile introduced grass pastures (fescue, Bermuda,
and bahia) in open valleys nearby. Cattle gains on PBG native forages (mostly big and little
bluestems and indiangrass) with no inputs rivals gains on conventionally managed pastures in the
nearby valleys. This despite significant differences in soil productivity (rocky, well-drained
pastures on the WMA vs. loamy, more moist bottomground pastures in the valleys)
 Vegetation structure on PBG sites looks very good for commonly managed-for wildlife species
(quail, deer, turkey)
 Forage use will point to proper stocking rates. If cattle are grazing the unburned portions to a
significant degree, then the stocking rate is too high and some stock should be removed.
Conversely, if the burned patch growth is getting ahead of the cattle, then more stock can be
added.
 When averaged over 5-6 years, forage production and cattle gains are better on PBG managed
pastures than on traditionally managed ones. In wet years, traditional management may outperform PBG, but in dry years PBG will be much better. Also, in severe drought years, the
unburned patches can serve as a grass bank.
Oak/Pine Woodland Management:
 Shortleaf pine and post oak are the most common trees on the WMA, probably due to fire
tolerance. WMA staff and University of Missouri professor Mike Stambaugh both noted that they
have not found a fire intensity severe enough to consistently kill shortleaf pine or post oak. Both
species may be top killed by fire, but both will resprout readily – even the shortleaf.



Stambaugh reported that based on fire scar studies dating back more than 300 years, these
communities historically burned every 3-8 years or so on average. This fire return interval
selected for shortleaf pine and post oak as the primary tree species on the landscape due to their
fire tolerance.
A fire return interval of 3 years or less seems to be the threshold for shifting to a grass/forbdominated understory. More frequent fire tends to increasingly reduce tree canopy densities,
even among fire tolerant species (they often persist, but may be top-killed and occur as
resprouts).
Fire will almost never control oak sprouts – it just suppresses them. Even in the plots burned
annually for the past 30 years, oak sprouts are still very prevalent in the understory. These
sprouts might have root systems that are decades old, so cessation of burning will quickly release
them to fully occupy the canopy and suppress the grasses and forbs. This highlights the
importance of regular fire in keeping land open and grass/forb dominated
Anecdotally, the highest use rate by quail in the fall is on the post oak savannah and pine/bluestem
savannah plots that receive annual fire. But this management regime probably does not support the most
during the breeding season, since there would not be much if any nesting cover present. Likely the best
scenario is having annually burned patches adjacent to patches burned every 2-3 years, or the PBG type
management.
Small-Game Hunting Forecast Mostly Sunny
Quail, pheasant, and squirrel numbers are increasing from recent lows in most areas, and rabbits are
likely to follow this general upward trend, according to resource scientists with the Missouri Department of
Conservation.
Field observations play an important role in the Conservation Department’s annual evaluation of game
populations. The Conservation Department also pays close attention to weather throughout the year,
looking for insights about winter survival, nesting conditions, and factors affecting the availability of food,
shelter, and water for young, growing game animals. This year’s weather news is mostly good.
Conservation Department Resource Scientist Beth Emmerich says that while the winter of 2013-14 was
colder than normal, and spring arrived late, quail and pheasants seem to have coped with it surprisingly
well.
“Precipitation was close to normal this winter,” says Emmerich. “We had one notable snow event on Feb.
4 and 5 that dumped 4 to 12 inches of snow across the northern half of the state. Quail began nesting
later than usual this year, with the peak of the hatch in July. But we got a break from the cycle of floods,
drought, and heat that we have seen in recent years, and wildlife took advantage of relatively normal
conditions during the brood-rearing period of early summer.”
Emmerich says quail numbers are up statewide this year, and higher than they have been since 2010.
Northwest, north-central, and northeastern Missouri all recorded increases in quail numbers. So did westcentral Missouri. Pheasants, which share many of the same habitat as quail, showed good production in
those pockets of northern Missouri where significant pheasant populations persist. Field reports also
indicate an increase in cottontail rabbit numbers across the state.
“I don’t want to paint an overly rosy picture,” says Emmerich. “It’s very encouraging to see survey
numbers come up substantially. But it is important to remember that these increases come on the heels
of all-time lows. Scarcity of suitable habitat for upland game remains the biggest challenge to increasing
quail, pheasant, and rabbit populations. Good brood-rearing habitat is most limiting statewide. Quail
chicks need bare ground to be able to forage effectively, with weedy plant species providing food as well
as overhead protective cover. We still have a long way to go.”
Why is burning (at the proper time) important for quail?
Always have an objective in mind before you burn.
The native warm-season grass field pictured was
burned in early September to reduce grass
dominance and control black locust sprouts. Listed
below are recommended burning times for wildlife
management.
Native warm-season grasses (Aug. – Feb.) –
Best time for quail


Stimulates wildflower growth and seed
germination
Sets back thick non-useable stands of
native warm-season grass
CAUTION – burning at this time can cause
erosion problems if done on steep slopes
Cool-season grasses with less than 2” of new
growth (Feb. – Mar.)



To prepare for interseeding of legumes into
the existing grass stand
To stimulate cool-season grass
To stimulate germination of legumes in a
rank stand of grass
Cool-season grasses with at least 4-6” of new growth (April – May) – Best time for quail



To set back thick stands of cool-season grass and encourage annual weeds
Kill or set back woody vegetation
Useful to open up thick stands of fescue, brome, and orchardgrass
CAUTION – burning at this time will kill germinated annual lespedeza and ragweed
Native warm-season grasses with 1-3” of new growth (April – May)


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To thicken up a poor stand of native grass
Kill or set back woody vegetation
Burning at this time is not recommended for wildlife purposes in thick stands of grass
CAUTION – burning at this time will kill germinated annual lespedeza and ragweed
For quail management purposes, you want just enough grass to
control erosion. A perfect looking stand of grass is generally not good
for small game. You want your grasslands weedy with plenty of bare
ground between the grass clumps. If there is enough grass to carry a
fire you should burn every 3 years. Have a goal in mind when you
decide to burn and only burn 1/3 to ½ of each field. This will leave
some grass for nesting while the burned area will be used as brood
habitat. With burning timing is everything to make sure you get the
results you want. If you are new to burning, attend a prescribed burn
workshop and make sure you have a burn plan before you drop the match.
Good Quail Habitat = A+B+C
You don’t need any secret ingredients turn your land into a good place for quail. It just takes a mix of
plants and ground cover with the right habitat management practices. Quail habitat is really as simple as
ABC:
A.
Shrubby, brushy cover is the cornerstone of quail habitat. It provides protection from
predators, winter cold and summer heat. Small shrubs such as wild plum, dogwood, blackberry,
and fragrant sumac give good shelter without becoming too dense underneath or too tight a
canopy above. These brushy areas should be at least 30 feet wide.
B. Grasses and legumes – when burned or grazed to keep at least 20 percent of the ground bare
(free of plant material) give quail a good place to roost, nest and raise their young. Fescue and
brome tend to be the least hospitable to quail because they grow really thick. However, with
Missouri’s climate, all grasses require management to keep some bare ground for the birds.
If you have the choice of creating ideal grassland habitat for quail, it should include a mediumheight, warm season grass (little bluestem) and forbs (legumes or flowers). Some possible native
forbs include tick trefoil (desmodium spp.), slender lespedeza (lespedeza virginica) and partridge
pea (cassia fasciculate).
C. Quail favor annual weedy plants such as ragweed and croton, although they’ll eat a great
variety of seeds and insects. Like rabbits, quail are an “early successional” species. That means
you’ll find them in places that are not densely overgrown and that have some disturbed ground
with annual plants. Land that is periodically tilled, planted or not, provides diverse food for quail.
Disking one third of your grassland acres is good for producing the annual plants quail prefer.
This will also keep the grassland open and usable for quail.
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